In the past year, a wave of cities and counties have revived youth curfews. Cities like Oklahoma City, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago have created new curfews, expanded old ones or resumed enforcement of dormant, existing curfews.
Homeless and youth advocates worry that these curfews increase kids’ contact with police while failing to reduce crimes against or committed by minors. In some cases, judges have ruled youth curfews are unconstitutional.
“The thing about young people is there is always a moral panic, and every generation has headlines that say, ‘Youth today are more violent,’ and it’s simply not true,” said Jenny Egan, chief attorney for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s juvenile division in Baltimore. “It’s how adults speak and talk about young people—to and about them without engaging young people in that work.”
According to the National Youth Rights Association, about 400 local or state governments have curfew laws on the books. Many communities developed curfew rules during a 1990s push for so-called “tough on crime” laws, which disproportionately affected people of color and with disabilities.
Black kids and other youth of color are more likely to be impacted by curfew enforcement. For instance, data from the 90s showed that Black kids in New Orleans were 19 times more likely than their white peers to be arrested on curfew violations.
Some data also shows curfews don’t prevent gun violence against kids. A Philadelphia Inquirer analysis found that last summer, more kids were shot in Philly than any previous summer on record, despite the city having a curfew in place.
At the same time, some communities are scaling back or ending curfews. In April, the Atlanta City Council created an exemption for unsheltered kids. Memphis police decided not to enforce the city’s curfew after residents expressed concerns about the department’s plan to use a community center to hold kids who broke the curfew.
Texas lawmakers approved a bill that would block cities and counties from creating and enforcing curfews. In response to the bill, at least one city—Fort Worth—let its curfew expire this year.
What happens when curfews don’t exempt unsheltered kids
Although curfews are minor offenses, they can result in fines that can be difficult for low-income people to pay. And for kids experiencing homelessness, contact with the criminal justice system can be further destabilizing.
“It’s creating more barriers for them to become stable, get housing, get jobs,” said Ashley Monroe, team lead for the Supporting Kids in Independent Living program at Oklahoma City nonprofit Pivot. “Unfortunately, it can have a domino effect.”
Curfews also can punish kids who are out late to avoid unsafe situations at home.
“I think that’s especially true of youth experiencing homelessness,” said Vic Wiener, a staff attorney for the Juvenile Law Center who previously worked with unhoused youth in Tulsa. “Some of them may have been kicked out or not have a home to go to at all, but many of them are also escaping abuse or domestic violence in their homes, and they may be experiencing homelessness for that reason.”
[ Read more: Access to mental health medication is spotty in some Oklahoma jails and prisons ]
Curfew enforcement can lead to more serious charges. Unsheltered kids sometimes receive weapon charges because they may have a knife or gun for self-defense while living outdoors.
“That doesn’t mean that the young person is out trying to cause harm, but they may just be trying to protect themselves,” Wiener said. “Public safety, the safety of young people and youth violence is so much more complicated than just youth being out at a particular time. Responding to it requires support services and community resources.”
In Oklahoma City, some unsheltered youth feel targeted by curfew enforcement
Oklahoma City has a citywide curfew, and in March, the city council expanded a separate curfew for the downtown Bricktown District. Breaking the curfews is a municipal class A offense, which can result in a fine or community service.
Oklahoma City Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Gary Knight said that since the new Bricktown curfew rules went into effect, the department has issued just two citations. However, local homeless service providers focused on helping youth told Streetlight some kids they serve have felt targeted by the city’s curfews, which have led them to have more contact with police.
Neither Oklahoma City’s Bricktown or its citywide curfew ordinances have exemptions for unhoused kids, but Knight said the department gives curfew citations as a last resort and doesn’t enforce curfews against children who are experiencing homelessness. He added: “We are far more concerned about finding help and a place for a homeless child than enforcing an ordinance. That’s why we typically contact (the Department of Human Services) when we come across a homeless juvenile.”
However, during the past year, Monroe said Oklahoma City police have brought some youth experiencing homelessness to Pivot’s community intervention center on curfew violations without first contacting DHS. When kids receive low-level citations and certain misdemeanor or felony charges, police may book them into the center, where they can be held up to 24 hours.
[ Read more: How Oklahoma’s domestic violence laws fail survivors ]
Monroe said police also have brought to the center a group that can overlap with the homeless population—kids in DHS custody and who have run away from a DHS placement, like a group home—without first contacting DHS.
If a parent, guardian or DHS worker doesn’t arrive to pick up a child within 24 hours, the center contacts police, who take the child to DHS, Monroe said.
Since July last year, the center held 658 kids who were runaways or in need of supervision and 289 kids in DHS custody, according to data from Pivot. About 100 of those kids were taken to the center on curfew violations.
Oklahoma City’s police handbook doesn’t address what officers should do when they encounter kids experiencing homelessness. In the case of a runaway, the handbook says if police can’t reach a parent or guardian, officers should contact DHS to determine where the kid should be placed. Then if DHS asks them to, the officer should take the child to that location, the manual says.
Most kids held in Pivot’s community intervention center receive charges that are more serious than a curfew citation, but Monroe questions the use of police resources on this kind of enforcement.
“It just seems like our time and money could be invested in a different place than trying to focus on youth at 11 o’clock, especially the homeless youth because there’s no way they’re going to be able to pay those fines,” she said.
Data shows Baltimore’s curfew doesn’t impact youth crime
Since 1994, Baltimore has had an evening curfew that has shifted in and out of enforcement. In response to a shooting that injured two teenagers, Mayor Brandon Scott announced in April the city would resume evening curfew enforcement.
In May, as Scott appeared on talk shows touting his approach to youth gun violence, a Baltimore police officer, Detective Cedric Elleby, shot 17-year-old Mekhi Franklin after chasing him through westside streets and alleyways. The chase occurred after officers tried to stop Franklin for an alleged concealed firearm.
[ Read more: Homelessness is rising nationally. So are laws targeting the unsheltered. ]
Since 2017, Baltimore’s police department has been under a consent decree stemming from the death of Freddie Gray, who died due to injuries he received in police custody in 2015.
“We know the consent decree changes a lot of things,” Scott said in an interview with WBAL Radio last month. “But at its core, it does not change the fact … that when you are 10, 11, 12 years old and it’s 12, 1 at night, that you’re not supposed to be outside.”
The Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police has said police may not have enough resources to enforce the evening curfew.
Egan said local data shows curfew enforcement doesn’t increase or decrease the number of kids who receive criminal charges. Instead, she said, youth arrests and criminal complaints have fallen 85% in Baltimore City since 2009.
“We talk about the superpredator myth as if it is a myth of the past,” Egan said. “the laws and policies that were put into place on the basis of a racist, evil stereotype and trope are still on the books in Maryland, and this curfew is one of them.”
Connect with resources mentioned in this story
- In Oklahoma City: Learn more about Pivot’s services and how to help
- In Maryland: Apply for a public defender or learn how to volunteer with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender
Contact Streetlight editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@streetlightnews.org. Follow her reporting by joining our newsletter.
Streetlight, previously BigIfTrue.org, is a nonprofit news site based in Oklahoma City. Our mission is to report stories that envision a more equitable world and energize our readers to improve their communities. Donate to support our work here.
